Christmas Stop #1: Hord

Friday was supposed to be our last day of school before Christmas break, but after getting about three inches of snow and 60 mph winds on Thursday afternoon and evening, we had a very anti-climatic usher into Christmas break.  Of course the call came after I drug my sorry carcass into the shower after hitting the snooze literally AT LEAST eight times.  I find, as a general rule, the later it gets into the week, the more times I hit the snooze.  I'm not an easy one to get stirrin' but once I do, look out, I get crap done.  :)  (which in my mind makes up for the hour of time I've wasted snoozing...if you have other opinions, you're entitled, ahem, CHAD.)

So anywho...I digress.  Friday we DIDN'T have school, which meant we had zero closure on the winter party, my student teacher, delivering Christmas gifts, finals, etc, etc.  For the first time ever, I had no delight in the announcement of a snow day.  There have been times I've been on the fence and could be happy either way, but there was no fence in this scenario...and the Kutscher household was feeling Grinchy.

The snow day did however give me some time to wrap gifts, bake, and pack so we could roll out by lunch time on Saturday to scenic and serene Hord, Illinois.  After being at home with the (sweet, angel) children alone for a few hours while Chad worked at school I was at the end of my rope and had to call him to return for back up.  I was wrapping, baking, and packing all at the same time and everytime I'd leave a room to go to tend to something else I'd return to chaos....wrapping paper strewn through the room....gift tags stuck on people's faces....bickering children....These are times when the Christmas spirit is squelched folks.  Thankfully when Chad returned to wrangle I was able to tie up some loose ends before we attended our small group Christmas party for the evening.

The next morning we got up to tie up more loose ends...after all, doesn't there seem to be a lot of that during the Christmas season?!...and we were on the road around 11.  We had some down time at Mom and Dads before the rest of the fam showed up from Dad's side.

The boys got to get right down to business as soon as Aunt Lori and fam arrived, opening birthday presents!...a little warm up for the Christmas unwrapping that was ahead.





 After some eating there was a little game playing, and reindeer antler wearing...

 Baleigh was fine with posing for pics as long as there were no Facebook posts...she didn't say anything about not approving blog posts though!  ;)

Aunt Lori won this lovely Elf microphone from guessing the most hummed Christmas carols correctly.  Landon was a fan...but I insisted the prize go home with her.  ;)

 And speaking of 'insisting'...how bout this pic of Mom informing Michael that he WAS indeed participating in the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' Game.  Boom, Michael!  She's still the Mom...you're playin'.

And more gift unwrapping!  Landon's a happy camper with anything in his hands labeled STAR WARS.

We FaceTimed with Lindsey, Brent, and Jack.  

Here's Landon giving Jack a hug through the phone.  :)

After church the next morning Grant got a much needed touch up on the mowing that I attempted to give him with the clippers.  I'm definitely not qualified for that...total hack job.  He was cooperative however, which was a victory in itself.  I was fine with just that victory until he was walking back down the center aisle of the church with mom after Moments with the Children, and I thought to myself, 'aww...what a cute boy!  WHO the HECK cut his HAIR!!??!'  Mom's trim became top priority as soon as we walked in the door.  And despite this picture, Grant really was pretty good for this trim as well....as soon as the Tootsie Pop was busted out, all was good.  

Tootsie Pops could change the world if there were enough of them.  

Sunday afternoon Grandpa and Grandma headed over.  Here's one of several pictures of No Pants Grant from the weekend.  It made for easier access for the potty training.  I will not allow pants to be optional for future Christmases.    Then what do ya know....more present opening!

 I was excited to give Grandpa the best gadget in the world, designed just for him....a wireless rain gauge.  I did follow it with a disclaimer though that I could NOT be held responsible for the rain, or lack there of, that it did or did not display.  I think he was okay with it.


 One of my favorite gifts the boys received...Lego storage!  Yippee!!!

Dad with two of his biggest fans...Grant and Zelda

 Landon showing his excitement through drama again....upon opening Jake and the Neverland Pirates toys....He was so excited he nearly fainted folks....oh wait, it was more of a conscious collapse than a faint.  This one...he's a funny boy.

 Grant opening one of his favorite gifts with Grandpa's help...Snoopy Dawg (as he's being referred to these days).  I missed the next half a second where he grabbed him, put him on his shoulder, snuggled him, and said, "awww!!  he's soft!"  I think we've got a good buddy here.

Uncle Michael putting his engineering degree to some work by putting together Legos.

Ahh! No pants AND no shirt Grant?!  Brrr!!!

The puppies are nice and warm
by the fire though...

 Let's try out these 'talkie talkies' that Uncle Michael bought us...

and concentrate SUPER hard on a rollicking game of Spiderman Yahtzee!  Oh Lordy Grant, that pencil grip is giving the teacher side of me cold chills.  That'll never do...

Grandma and Landon talking strategy on the other side of the table.

 Ummm, let's leave this picture as small as possible.  I can't possibly be as old as I look in this pic.  AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!

 Yep, still no clothing on this child....sigh.  WHERE is your mother little boy?!

We went to the 7:00 Christmas Eve service.  I love the feel of the 11:00 service, but let's be honest, if we DID the 11:00 service, there would be NO sleep, none, zero, zilch, nada for us.  There was the added stress of this service of Landon being terrified of the candle lighting too of course.  Every time 'Silent Night' came on Pandora for the two weeks leading up to Christmas, he would take a deep breath and dramatically say, "oh Mom...I don't like THIS song.  You know what we do to THIS song at Grandpa and Grandma's church.  Light CANDLES.  I don't like Silent Night."  Sigh.  Really?  We had a few little sit downs about how he WOULD sit through the service and he WOULD be just fine and of course would NOT be required to hold a candle himself.  And remarkably as soon as the flame was passed down our pew he didn't even do any hand wringing or dramatic breathing.  Success!!  (which was good because I was having a hard time feeling the Christmas spirit since we had to take Grant out of the service TWO times to go pee and for the last 40 minutes of the HOUR and FORTY FIVE MINUTE service, I was thinking about the list of things that had to be done before we could go to bed that evening...please forgive me Lord)

We flew back to Grandma's for a family pic opp and then changed into jammies, and started the sleigh back for Rochester.

was so glad Bay got to go to church with us! She was spending the night with her Dad and Lori and Dan had started back to Carbondale with warnings of a blizzard headed their way.   

 So we buckled up the boys, tucked them in their seats with their blankies and puppies and turned on the movie The Santa Clause thinking they'd be asleep before we left town.  Ummm, yes....they were WIDE awake until Taylorville.  Good gravy!  Seriously?!?!  I was exhausted!  I do however remember the anticipation of Christmas Eve and Santa's visit to our house.  I vividly remember one Christmas Eve sitting on the couch at Grandpa and Grandma's house, sitting with Dad's arm around me, watching Kevin Orpurt, the weather man on Channel 10 show the track for Santa's travels and feeling so excited about his arrival at our house...wondering if he DID have a Cabbage Patch Preemie Doll in his sack for me....and how heavy my eyes were but I just fought and fought and wouldn't let them close.  I think there was some fightin' going on in the backseat of the Yukon...and sleep finally won the fight in Taylorville.  I promised Landon we'd get the cookies and milk out for Santa and leave them with Elmer.  And as soon as THAT was done (and the list that my mind was racing about during church) Chad and I laid down our heads for a long winter's nap.  :)  And if there was a clatter that arose on the lawn, we slept like rocks right through it.